(RTTNews) – The Malaysia stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, collecting almost 30 points or 2 percent along the way. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now rests just beneath the 1,470-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets remains upbeat on optimism for the outlook of interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The KLCI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the glove makers, plantations and telecoms, while the financials were mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 18.47 points or 1.27 percent to finish at the daily high of 1,468.21 after trading as low as 1,459.54. Volume was 3.436 billion shares worth 2.428 billion ringgit. There were 667 gainers and 275 decliners.

Among the actives, Axiata accelerated 3.85 percent, while CIMB Group gained 0.73 percent, Dialog Group and MRDIY both rallied 3.03 percent, Digi.com was up 1.83 percent, Genting spiked 4.11 percent, Genting Malaysia strengthened 2.24 percent, Hartalega Holdings climbed 1.94 percent, IHH Healthcare and IOI Corporation both rose 0.50 percent, INARI soared 5.26 percent, Maybank lost 0.46 percent, Maxis shed 0.52 percent, Petronas Chemicals added 1.04 percent, PPB Group increased 1.11 percent, Press Metal surged 7.87 percent, Public Bank collected 0.45 percent, RHB Capital dipped 0.18 percent, Sime Darby and Tenaga Nasional both improved 1.81 percent, Sime Darby Plantations jumped 2.30 percent, Telekom Malaysia advanced 1.28 percent, Top Glove skyrocketed 8.47 percent and Kuala Lumpur Kepong, MISC and Hong Leong Bank were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened mixed on Friday, with the Dow spending most of the session in negative territory before breaking into the green late in the day.

The Dow rose 32.49 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 33,747.86, while the NASDAQ surged 209.18 points or 1.88 percent to close at 11,323.33 and the S&P 500 advanced 36.56 points or 0.92 percent to end at 3,992.93.

For the week, the NASDAQ skyrocketed 8.1 percent, the S&P 500 soared 5.9 percent and the Dow jumped 4.2 percent.

The extended rally on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from optimism about the Federal Reserve slowing the pace of interest rate hikes following Thursday’s tamer than expected inflation data.

On the heels of the inflation data, CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 80.6 percent chance the Fed will raise rates by 50 basis points next month compared to the recent 75 basis point rate hikes.

Crude oil prices spiked on Friday, supported by a weak dollar and reports about China cutting quarantine restrictions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $2.49 or 2.9 percent at $88.96 a barrel.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Dividend stocks have historically been powerful investments. Since 1973, dividend stocks outperformed the S&P 500 (9.6% average annual total return versus 8.2%), according to a study from Ned Davis Research and Hartford Funds. Among that dividend group, dividend growers performed even better and delivered a 10.7% average annual total return.

There are plenty of dividend stocks to choose from these days, but not all of them outperform. Three solid ones our Fool.com contributors believe are great buys this month are A. O. Smith (NYSE: AOS), Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE: BEP) (NYSE: BEPC), and Enbridge (NYSE: ENB). Here’s why they think these are great dividend stocks to buy and hold for the long haul.

It will make you feel good (honest!)

Reuben Gregg Brewer (A. O. Smith): During a recent hurricane, I had to take a cold shower. It was awful and reminded me of the business of A. O. Smith, which makes water heaters. The company is dealing with headwinds today, including inflation and housing slowdowns in the United States and China, a key foreign market. Adjusted earnings per share were down 15% year over year in the third quarter. However, this company’s products are not falling out of style. Take a cold shower yourself, and you’ll quickly agree.

Confirmation of this fact can be found by looking at sales in India (another key market) which rose 16% in the quarter. Basically, as this emerging nation’s population moves up the socioeconomic ladder, the demand for hot water increases. And once customers have hot water, they want to keep it, which is why North American markets are largely sustained by replacement demand. This is a stable business, even if short-term headwinds cause some temporary turbulence.

As for A. O. Smith’s dividend, it has increased annually every year for over 25 years, making the stock a Dividend Aristocrat. The dividend yield, meanwhile, is around 2.1%. While that’s not huge on an absolute basis, it is toward the high side of the company’s yield range over the past 10 years, suggesting the shares are attractively priced.

Note, too, that the dividend has increased at a rapid 20% clip over that span. The dividend growth rate slowed of late, which isn’t shocking given the business backdrop. However, if you are a dividend growth investor, A. O. Smith is a buy-and-hold gem.

Earn more dividends every year with this stock

Neha Chamaria (Brookfield Renewable Partners): Some stocks consistently pay out dividends and even commit to growing them regularly over time, underpinned by earnings and cash-flow growth. But they still don’t get much love from the market.

Brookfield Renewable Partners is one such dividend stock that lost more than 20% of its value this year. Yet if you look at how steadily the company grows, you’d want to consider buying this dividend now and holding for the long term to reap the rich returns.

Brookfield Renewable just reported its third-quarter numbers, and it grew its funds from operations (FFO) per share by 15% year over year during the quarter. The company is aggressively growing its renewables pipeline and supplementing that growth with acquisitions, which is driving its FFO higher. Recent growth moves include a partnership with uranium giant Cameco to acquire Westinghouse Electric, the world’s largest nuclear energy equipment and services provider. Brookfield Renewable will invest $750 million in Westinghouse and, together with its institutional partners, own a 51% stake in the nuclear company.

In another notable move, Brookfield Renewable and its institutional partners have just proposed to acquire Origin Energy’s power generation and gas retailing businesses. Origin Energy is among Australia’s largest electricity and gas providers.

Brookfield Renewable is clearly on a roll, and with the world transitioning to clean energy, this company has tremendous growth opportunities. As its FFO grows, so should dividends. Brookfield is already targeting an average annual dividend growth of 5% to 9% in the long term, which, when combined with its dividend yield of 4.3%, makes for a solid dividend stock to buy and hold.

Built for the long term

Matt DiLallo (Enbridge): Enbridge is an exceptional dividend stock. The Canadian energy infrastructure giant offers a high yield (currently 6.1%) that it consistently grows. The company delivered its 27th consecutive year of dividend growth in 2022.

Enbridge’s high-yielding payout is on rock-solid ground. The company’s four core franchises — liquids pipelines, natural gas transmission, natural gas distribution, and renewable energy — produce very stable cash flow, backed by long-term contracts and government-regulated rate structures. Its pipelines and utilities are crucial to supporting energy demand across North America.

Meanwhile, it has a conservative dividend payout ratio for a pipeline/utility company — 60% to 70% of its cash flow — giving it a cushion while allowing it to retain earnings to help fund expansions. Enbridge also has a strong investment-grade credit rating with a relatively low leverage ratio. That gives it billions of dollars of annual financial flexibility to fund expansion projects and acquisitions.

Enbridge has billions of dollars of expansion projects underway across its four franchises. It’s investing to meet current energy needs as well as the lower-carbon energy sources we’ll need in the future. It’s building several offshore wind farms in Europe and recently bought a large onshore renewable energy project developer in North America. Enbridge is investing in emerging lower-carbon energy sources like renewable natural gas and green hydrogen. Those lower carbon fuels could eventually replace natural gas in its pipelines and utilities, extending the life of those legacy assets.

The company expects to grow its cash flow per share at a 5% to 7% annual rate through at least 2024. Meanwhile, given its growing focus on investing in lower-carbon fuels, Enbridge should have plenty of power to continue growing its high-yielding dividend for years to come.

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Matthew DiLallo has positions in Brookfield Renewable Corporation Inc., Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P., and Enbridge. Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Enbridge. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Brookfield Renewable Corporation Inc. and Enbridge. The Motley Fool recommends A. O. Smith and Brookfield Renewable Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Following a record-breaking year, the 2022 Initial Public Offering (IPO) market has had a markedly slower start amid inflationary concerns and a challenging global geopolitical environment. Heightened uncertainty has led to increased market volatility and has created challenges for the new issue market.  In fact, we typically see 95% of companies go public when the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) is below 25. On June 21, 2022, the VIX sits around 30 and has been trading between 16 and 38 since the start of the year. Despite the market volatility, however, Nasdaq has raised approximately $11 billion across 106 total listings year-to-date, and we see a robust and healthy pipeline of companies looking to go public over the next 12 months.

Get a head start so you are prepared to access the market when the window of opportunity presents itself. Whether you’re a start-up that is interested in learning more about the IPO process or a late-stage company already down the path of going public, there’s no better time than now to create an IPO checklist and to check it twice. To help you get a head start, we’ve created the following checklist of key considerations a company may want to think about and complete ahead of accessing the public markets via an IPO, Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) or a Direct Listing (DL):   

Getting Started

• Identify counsel and auditors and determine roles and responsibilities for the complete list of matters pertaining to an IPO, such as the structure of the IPO, registration statement, offering and overview of the company’s governance framework.
• Identify prospective investment bankers and analysts in your sector and engage as appropriate.
• Create a working group of senior management, underwriters, lawyers and accountants. Once the group is established, schedule an organizational meeting.
• Identify the stock exchange the company intends to list on and ensure the company will meet the applicable listing standards. Once identified, conduct preliminary conversations with listing representatives at the exchange and prepare necessary listing applications, including reserving a stock symbol.
• Select financial printer, transfer agent, registrar bank note company. A financial printerassists privately-held companies with registration document filings for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and helps companies remain compliant by continuing to perform SEC document filings, such as annual reports, warrant forms and stock certificates, once public. A transfer agent issues and cancels certificates to reflect changes in ownership of the securities of an entity and to act as an intermediary for the company. Meanwhile, a registrar’s function is to maintain the register of the issuer for each issue of securities. 
• Obtain central index key (CIK) and CIK confirmation code (CCC) on behalf of the company and the directors, Section 16 officers and 10% holders. CIK is a unique, public number assigned to each entity that submits filings to the SEC and allows the regulator to differentiate between filing entities with similar names. The CCC is an eight-character code used in combination with the CIK to submit a filing via EDGAR.

Preparing for a Public Company Board

• Assess the composition of the current board and corporate committees to identify any changes necessary to satisfy exchange listing and SEC requirements. Prior to this assessment, it is essential to understand the exchange’s requirements for independent directors. With this understanding, then a company is able to recruit independent board members with relevant skills, backgrounds and perspectives. During the recruiting process, distribute D&O Questionnaires to all officers, directors and 5% holders and subsequently determine any conflicts of interest.
• Create a corporate governance framework appropriate for a public company. This may require revising organizational documents necessary for public companies, such as the Certificate of Incorporation, Corporate Bylaws, Registration Rights Agreements and Stockholder Agreements. Create Corporate Governance Guidelines.
• Prepare corporate governance policies, including Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Insider Trading Policy, Regulation FD Policy, Related Party Transaction Policy, Communication with Stockholders Policy, Disclosure Controls and Procedures and Whistleblower Policy. During this time, it’s also important to consider the formation of a Disclosure Committee on the board of directors.
• Secure a confidential board portal, such as Nasdaq Boardvantage, for all corporate governance and compliance documents, confidential director information, director orientation and onboarding materials, investor data, analyst reports and board meeting materials.
• Engage a compensation consultant to analyze current compensation practices and policies, including equity and non-equity incentives for staff and board members and identify gaps for remediation.
• Build out your senior management team to operate as a public company; consider key hires in financial reporting, investor relations and corporate governance.

Establishing an Enterprise Risk Management Framework, Program and Creating a Comprehensive Risk Register

• Engage the internal auditor to lead the collection of a comprehensive library of corporate risks; review the Comprehensive Risk Register with executive management team, the external auditor and the Board.
• Shore up your cybersecurity defenses and technologies to keep up with the digital transformation of the economy and to protect your business, clients and data from bad actors. 

Establishing Financial Reporting Procedures

• Engage an external auditor experienced in the IPO process and public company financial reporting. Once an external auditor has been selected, prepare and finalize audited financial statements for prior years.
• Identify sensitive accounting policies and SEC “hot issues” for financial reporting with the external auditor. Ensure they are considered and discussed with the national office and included in financial filings.
• Create corporate goals and operating metrics beyond GAAP financials that can be used to measure the business. Be sure to work with investment bankers and company leadership to create these metrics.
  • Incorporate ESG best practices given the uptick in evolving regulatory reporting requirements, investor input, and the increase of corporate sustainability commitments by corporates.
• Engage an independent valuation expert to perform regular stock valuation to assist with options pricing. For pre-IPO companies, quarterly valuations are the norm.

Ensuring Internal Controls and a Corporate Compliance Program

• Discuss internal controls—such as material weaknesses or significant deficiencies—with your advisors and underwriters.
• Review Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act requirements and engage your external accounting firm in developing your SOX Program to ensure compliance.
• Engage an experienced D&O Insurance broker early in the process to secure D&O insurance to ensure your directors and officers are adequately protected at the time of the IPO.

Considering Public Communications

• Review with counsel the rules that govern your public communications during the IPO Then, standardize public communications and develop consistency for external communications. Create and outline the process for review of press releases, media interviews and public appearances before and after the IPO.
• Review corporate website to ensure accurate and updated information with an eye for information necessary for investors. Ensure review by counsel to ensure the website is consistent with SEC rules on public communications prior to and after the IPO.

Confidentiality and Due Diligence of Corporate Documents

• Confidentiality of all pre-IPO documents is of the utmost importance; ensure confidentiality internally and discuss with counsel the process of seeking confidential treatment from the SEC.
• Be prepared for extensive due diligence, which includes, but is not limited to, a review of minutes, capitalization records, material agreements, historic options grants and more. It may also be helpful to use an online database for due diligence.
• Review ongoing, pending or threatened litigation and assess the potential impact on the IPO, if any, and consider the impact of filing an IPO on your negotiation and settlement.

These steps and key learnings are based on our 52-year track record of helping thousands of companies successfully transition to public markets.In fact, at the end of last year, Nasdaq had approximately 3,736 U.S. operating companies representing a market value of about $27 trillion. Regardless of the path a company takes to go public, once you’re a public company, there are new and unique challenges. In the second part of this two-part series, we’ll delve deeper into what CEOs, executive leaders and board members need to know about key annual governance considerations as a public company.